The present invention relates to a programmable material.
Traditionally, machines and engineering structures have been constructed from parts each designed to perform a specific function at a specific position in a machine or structure. Such an approach limits the usefulness of the parts in other machines or structures.
The present invention reflects a very different approach to the design and construction of machines and structures.
The invention provides a machine of substantially parallelepiped shape, having means for so interacting with identical machines as to cause relative transport of them and the machine, and means for interacting with identical machines so as to secure the machine in position relative to them.
The machine is of substantially parallelepiped shape so that rows, sheets and blocks of closely spaced, or adjacent identical machines can be formed. They are also of that shape so that a machine may move or be moved over such a row or sheet whilst keeping one of its faces parallel and close to or adjacent to the exposed faces of the machine of the row or sheet. Clearly the machine may depart from an exactly parallelepiped shape by the removal of parts of its faces not needed for interacting with neighbouring machines.
The machine may be responsive to external signals communicated to it so as to effect the transport and securing.
Additionally or alternatively, the machine may incorporate a computer and be responsive to signals generated by that computer so as to effect the transport and securing.
The securing means or the transporting means or both may comprise electromagnets.
The transporting means or securing means or both may comprise mechanical parts or features on the machine that interlock with complementary parts or features on identical machines.
The transporting means may comprise mechanical parts or features on the machine that can be caused to interlock with complementary parts or features on an identical machine in such a manner as to allow relative motion of the machines along particular axes. Those parts or features may be arranged to provide two or more independently engageable interlocks between the machine and an identical machine, each of which allows relative motion of the two machines only along a respective one of two or more different axes.
The interlocking parts or features may comprise a member extensible from the machine into a recess or groove in an identical machine, the member incorporating extensible wedges for locking the member in the recess or groove.
The interlocking parts or features may comprise pairs of members, the members of a pair being extensible from a face of the machine, in different directions at an angle to the normal to that face, into respective ones of a pair of recesses or grooves in a face of an identical machine.
The interlocking parts or features may comprise pairs of members, each member of a pair being mounted to pivot between a withdrawn position and an extended position. Advantageously, the members of a pair receive at their withdrawn positions, in respective grooves in the members, respective ones of a pair of opposing lips from an identical machine.
The machine may comprise a plurality of studs on a face of the machine engageable with a neighbouring identical machine so as to locate it in position, the studs being retractable so as to release the neighbouring machine.
The studs may be engageable with interlocking mechanical parts or features of the neighbouring machine.
The studs may be depressible by an identical machine that is advancing to become such a neighbouring machine.
The machine may be of substantially cuboid shape, which is preferably a cube.
The machine may have four means on each face of the machine for communicating power or data with neighbouring identical machines, those means being located in the same positions on each face and being so located either on each of the diagonal centre lines or on each of the orthogonal centre lines of each face as to preserve the four-fold rotational symmetry of the face.
Additionally or alternatively, the machine may have coaxially arranged means mounted centrally on each face for communicating power or data with identical machines as to preserve the four fold rotational symmetry of the face.
Additionally or alternatively, the machine may have four pairs of an input means and an output means for communicating data with neighbouring identical machines, those means being located in the same positions on each face and the input means and output means of each pair being so located symmetrically to either side of each of centre lines of the face so as to preserve the four-fold rotational symmetry of the face.
The invention provides a machine equivalent in size to a parallelepiped block of a plurality of machines according to the invention, that is not composed of such machines and that has means for so interacting with such machines as to cause the relative transport and securing that would occur if the machine consisted of a parallelepiped block of machines.
The invention further provides structures and machines assembled from machines according to the invention.
The invention also provides a method of moving a first machine from a first site aligned with and neighbouring a second site, in a direction parallel to the neighbouring sites, wherein each site is a machine according to the invention.
The first machine may have neighbours that are secured to it and that move with it.
The method may be repeatedly applied to move a machine along a row of machines, and advantageously that motion is continuous.
The invention further provides a method of extending by one unit, a streamer of units in a row ending in a tip unit, the units either being single machines according to the invention, or being parallelepiped blocks of such machines, the method comprising moving a pair of units along the streamer until one of the pair is a neighbour of the tip unit and the other extends beyond the tip unit, and moving the other unit of the pair from being a neighbour of the one unit to being a neighbour of the tip unit, in which position it becomes the new tip unit, the movement of the machines being according to the invention.
The invention also provides a method of extending by one unit a streamer of units in a row beginning in a base unit, the units either being single machines according to the invention, or being parallelepiped blocks of such machines, the base unit having one or more neighbouring machines that are not in the row, the method comprising adding an extra unit to the row before the base unit and advancing the row relative to the one or more machines neighbouring the base unit a distance of one unit in the direction that results the extra unit moving to the original site of the base unit.
The invention also provides a method of retracting a streamer comprising reversing the steps of either of the methods of extending a streamer according to the invention.
The invention further provides a method of delivering machines according to the invention from a first point to a second point, comprising constructing from such machines a structure connecting the two points and moving the machines along the structure from the first point to the second point.
The invention also provides a method of constructing a structure comprising machines according to the invention, the method comprising either of the methods of extending a streamer according to the invention.
By analogy with plastics chemistry, the individual machines will be referred to as xe2x80x9cmonomersxe2x80x9d in the description, which follows, of examples of the present invention. Clearly the correspondence is not complete; for example, chemical monomers do not transport each other.
The ability of the monomers to transport each other means that the material can form itself into structures without the need for tools to fashion it. To build a structure, monomers are delivered by the material itself to desired positions. The material is programmable in the sense that many different structures can be built from the same monomers and so a xe2x80x9cprogrammable materialxe2x80x9d is a name which can be given to a collection of monomers.